The Right Mentality

The Right Mentality

Mariel Hemingway visits New Albany as part of mental health advocacy activism

Though her family name became a household name before she was even born, Mariel Hemingway went on to achieve fame in her own right.

The granddaughter of renowned writer Ernest Hemingway pursued an acting career and, later, used her family’s history and her own experiences as fuel for mental health advocacy.

While Hemingway has written a handful of books, ranging from autobiographical stories to self-help and healthy living, her most recent, published in April, include memoir Out Came the Sun: Overcoming the Legacy of Mental Illness, Addiction and Suicide in My Family and Invisible Girl, a memoir for young adults written from the perspective of a young Hemingway.

The Emmy-nominated actress will share her story with New Albany in a series of events centered on mental health, including a student lecture Oct. 12 and an Oct. 13 lecture for the 2015-16 season of the New Albany Community Foundation’s Jefferson Series.

Photo courtesy of Mariel Hemingway

The Right Mentality

Hemingway is especially excited to talk with students, she says, since many things associated with being young are confusing.

“They’re sponges,” she says. “They want to learn; they want to know and feel better about themselves.”

For her part, Hemingway says she has enjoyed her own journey of self-discovery, looking at her family’s history and her own childhood to learn more about her own habits.

“We make choices based on our training,” she says.

The subject of mental health has been hugely important in Hemingway’s family. Ernest Hemingway, of course, committed suicide in 1961. His father and two siblings took their own lives as well.

Mariel’s eldest sister, Joan, nicknamed Muffet, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Both of her parents heavily depended on alcohol. And in 1996, Mariel’s sister Margot, eventually known as Margaux, died from a phenobarbital drug overdose that was ruled a suicide.

Mariel’s pursuit to find clarity regarding her family’s history of mental illness and suicide was documented in the 2013 film Running from Crazy, directed by Barbara Kopple. Mariel worked with her on the documentary for two years on and off. In addition to including archival footage of her father, Jack, and Margaux, the production also included Mariel’s partner, Bobby Williams, and Langley, one of her two daughters.

The days of her interviews were intense, Mariel says, and the experience felt raw. She got to a point where she was no longer monitoring how she responded to questions. It was quite different from her previous film experiences, in which she was an actor occupying a character role.

The Right Mentality

Her acting career began through Margaux, who had achieved what would be short-lived fame through modeling and acting. The two sisters starred together in the 1976 film Lipstick, with Mariel playing the younger sister.

She says she was unconsciously looking to the film cast for the balance that she couldn’t find within her own family.

“It was such a replacement,” she says.

Mariel went on to star in Woody Allen’s 1979 film Manhattan, for which she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy and BAFTA awards. Subsequent work included 1982’s Personal Best, in which Mariel portrayed a bisexual athlete gunning for the Olympics, and 1983’s Star 80, in which Mariel portrayed real-life Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, who was murdered by her husband. Mariel’s acting career also includes television and television movies.

“I love the craft of acting,” she says.

Mariel says she wants to act again, because she thinks that coming from a place self-awareness could only improve her craft. She’d love to get a role for a Netflix series in the future. She’s also working on a project with a friend of hers to do two small movies in the spring and developing a film with Williams.